Apple Flattens iBooks for iOS, Leaves Page Animations (Screenshots)

By Bryan Chaffin

Nov 14th, 2013 1:41 PM EST

iBooks 3.2 Icon

Apple has finally updated iBooks for iOS, flattening the app and ripping out almost all of the skeuomorphic design elements. Gone are the wooden shelves and the book pages that look like the pages of a book, but Apple did leave in the main skeuomorphic element I was hoping to keep—page curl animations.

That means when you turn the page, it still looks like you're lifting a piece of paper and curling it back. In addition, the print from the other side of the page is still visible through the paper (backwards) as you turn it over.

The new release is version 3.2. Officially, the patch notes for the update say simply, "iBooks has been updated with a beautiful new design for iOS 7."

In practice, this means that iBooks for iOS now looks almost exactly like iBooks for Mavericks, with the exception of the above-mentioned page-curl animations. Flat book shelves, flat book pages, a flat iBookstore, and even highlighter markings that no longer have the rough edges of a skeuomorphic pen.